Three weeks into the new semester, two days after Alex returned from Montreal and an hour into her drive, Avaney had both hands resting lazily on the steering wheel and an open road before her

Three weeks into the new semester, two days after Alex returned from Montreal and an hour into her drive, Avaney had both hands resting lazily on the steering wheel and an open road before her. One benefit to moving back in with her parents after graduating was her access to a vehicle. She had told her mom the night before that she'd leave around noon today, but had woken up at 5am and decided to leave then. Soon her mom would be frantically calling her, demanding to know why she'd left without saying goodbye. Until then, she had silence, precious silence.

Avaney had wanted to leave and visit Chris weeks earlier, but had been waiting to hear back from him first. She'd wanted to see if he'd say anything about the time they'd spent together over the holidays, possibly confess that he'd always loved her. She gave him a week without letting herself get too frustrated. He was, after all, in his last semester of getting his Masters in Political Science. He was a busy guy. But as the third week with nothing came to an end, she'd had enough.

It was a Friday morning, but Avaney had left early enough to beat out the a.m. commuters. From her house in Mississauga, the drive would be about an hour and a half. She could probably get there faster with the lack of cars on the highway, but for some reason she was enjoying the slow and steady drive as the sun came up beside her.

Just then she passed a sign for Western; it was coming up in only a few exits! Her heart began to race uncontrollably…but it was followed by a sharp pang of guilt. Seeing Alex again the other night for the first time in months hadn't gone as badly as she had expected…and secretly hoped.

She'd arrived at Al's house that night wanting to see him and feel nothing. But he'd pulled her to him and held her so tightly. She'd buried her face into his chest suddenly feeling comforted by the faint smell of clean laundry and Old Spice deodorant…

She shook the recent memory from her head. It had been a nice moment, but the night had gone on to reveal what Avaney had already known. Something had become absent between them, leaving them with only the past to keep them together at all.

Within minutes, Avaney had gotten off the highway and pulled into the driveway to Chris' house. He lived here during the school year with roommates. She'd never been to this rundown, student house, but he'd sent her a birthday card from this address so she'd known where to find it.

She walked up the slanted driveway that was cracked and badly needed a new pave job. She hesitated briefly at the front door, it was fairly early still after all, then opened it and let herself in.

"Hello?" She called in a loud whisper. There was no answer but she could hear the sound of video games – guns firing and men yelling in foreign languages – coming from upstairs. She decided whoever was home must be awake so she chose to make her way upstairs.

The walls in the front hallway and on the way upstairs were off-white and dirty in places. There were small cracks in the paint, thumbtack holes and dents in various places on the walls, further branding the house as a student rental.

As she approached the room where the video game sounds were coming from, a guy with bright red hair and freckles holding an Xbox controller looked up at her from his bed.

"Uhh, who are you?" The carrot-topped guy asked.

"Hi!" Avaney answered back a little too excitedly. "Is Chris home? I came to visit."

"No, sorry." He responded. Avaney waited for a little more of an explanation but the redhead was already refocused on his game, not appearing to care that she was still standing there questioningly. She looked at his door and read the hello my name is: Rob sticker on it.

"Listen Rob," she was suddenly impatient. "I just drove here from Mississauga and Chris has been ignoring me and I really miss him and need to talk to him."

This was a little more information than she had originally intended to give Rob, but waking up so early and then arriving here to a missing Chris was making her cranky.

This time Rob paused his game and turned to face her.

"Listen, dude. He's like, in Denmark for the semester. Don't get pissy with me just because you didn't know that," Rob said.

Avaney was stunned. She watched as Rob yet again resumed his game, all the while unable to move or say anything.

"When's he coming back?" Avaney's voice was small and filled with hurt. She didn't know what was more upsetting to her; Chris being gone or the fact that he hadn't even mentioned he was going.

"I think he said April or something, when classes are done."

"Oh. Okay..." She tried to say more but couldn't. Rob emitted some kind of grunt in response and with that, she turned to leave.